Friday, April 24, 2009

OCLC takes the OPAC to the cloud

Damn, this is shaping up to be an interesting year in libraryland.

OCLC has announced that they're going to offer a fully online ILS (Integrated Library System). As in, no desktop client for acquisitions or circulation, and Worldcat.org as the public interface. The official press release is here, Andrew Pace has a short piece, and Marshall Breeding at Library Journal has a good writeup, in which he says, "While it’s too early to predict the numbers of libraries that will shift from traditional ILS products to services offered through WorldCat Local, the dynamics of the library automation industry will inevitably change. ... OCLC now will compete with such companies as SirsiDynix, Ex Libris, Innovative Interfaces, Polaris, The Library Corporation, Serials Solutions, and a myriad of other companies that offer ILS products, electronic resource management systems, link resolvers, federated search platforms and discovery interfaces."